Cachaça (port. cachaca) - Brazilian strong alcoholic drink, which is obtained by distillation of pure extract of sugar cane, in other words, distillation fermented juice of sugar cane. The strength of the drink is 38-40% vol.
The first mention of cachaça date back to the times of the colonization of Brazil. In 1500, the first Conquistador set foot on the Brazilian coast, and after 30 years, the first records of the production of kashasa were made.
Cachaça is often called Brazilian rum. The traditional rum is made from sugar cane molasses, and kashas – distillation of fermented cane juice. This Brazilian drink is similar to Rhum Agricole-rum French West Indies. Therefore, the expression of the Brazilian rum probably still has the right to life. However, Brazil legally allocates kashasu in a separate drink, and some countries (in particular the United States) recognize it as a distinctive Brazilian product. Kashasu in Brazil is produced almost all over the country, and the producers of this alcoholic beverage – more than 40 thousand.
The Brazilians clearly separates the factory from cachaca drink from the Hacienda. The second has a higher quality and is intended for sale in the domestic market, and the export is often the first.
Cachaça factory manufactured EN masse. In the pursuit of profit and reducing the time of production, the technology is greatly simplified compared to fazendas. Instead of vegetable fermentation stimulants used achievements of the chemical industry. This reduces the fermentation time up to 6-10 hours. The process of distillation is carried out in columns of a continuous cycle. The finished drink is defended in stainless steel tanks and is often not aged in barrels, so it has a transparent color. However, some manufacturers expose it to short-term exposure. Sometimes the drink to improve the taste, mix half-and-half aged and young. Pour rum in bottles made of transparent glass with a tin tube. Sometimes, before bottling, aged in wooden barrels.
Cachaca from the Hacienda is the old-fashioned way, so her parties are small and rarely venture outside Brazil. In the crushed sugar cane for fermentation, which lasts about eighteen hours, add corn flour, wheat bran, rice, soy or grain. This distillation of cachaça occurs only in copper pot stills. Then the cachaça is stored in wooden barrels. For the manufacture of barrels are used almost all the wood: oak, chestnut, almond, fruit trees, etc., the aging Process lasts no more than three years. After this kashasa has a light brown color, reminiscent of the color of tea with lemon and taste very close to a good brandy.
The most famous world brands of kashasa are: Caninha 51, Germana, Pitu, Old 88, Tatuzinho, Muller, Velho Barreiro, Paduana and Ypioca.
For aging cachaca can be classified as follows:
White – aged cachaça. Usually bottled immediately after distillation.
Golden – aged cachaça. By law, this drink can be considered kashasa, which includes at least half of the product, aged in wooden barrels for more than a year.
Separately, you can select a premium brand, the aging period of which is usually 3 years. But there are varieties with aging and up to 15 years.
Kashas are traditionally drunk from a tiny Cup with small SIPS. For those wishing to get everything at once, there is another ritual— swallow each dose with a volley from a narrow glasses called Martelinho, which means "little hammer". Usually a piece of lime or a little lime juice is added to kashasu: it helps to alleviate the consequences of alcohol incontinence. White kashasa is mainly used in cocktails.
The dangers of rum: depending on the quality and the endurance of kasasi you can talk about the magnitude of harm done to the body. Since the dissipation takes place only once the kashas from the head and tail, it contains either too volatile or too heavy fractions. It is of low quality and causes maximum damage to the body. But kashasa heart, which is valued most of all, too, is not safe. After all, we remember that the basis of the drink is ethyl alcohol. And its use in itself is harmful even in small quantities. Well, excessive use is deadly.
Other strong alcoholic beverages
